Am I correct in thinking only Hallberg, Stearns and Simkin have danced the Ballet Danseur role in this production? Am I missing someone from the DC tour?

Wondering what the company is going to do for LA...a sprained ankle might heal enough in two weeks for a woman, who is used to pointe work, but I don't know if they will want to risk Hallberg (on pointe, natch) ahead of the Japan tour. Simkin clearly cannot partner Murphy...which, in the worst case, would leave Stearns for three shows in a row?? Hopefully they've got someone in reserve if Hallberg cannot perform.

I have tickets to opening night and I have been waiting to buy for the Part/Abrera cast (thankfully I have been waiting, since it's already jumped dates once)...I hope things don't get much more jumbled.

Am I correct in thinking only Hallberg, Stearns and Simkin have danced the Ballet Danseur role in this production? Am I missing someone from the DC tour?

Wondering what the company is going to do for LA...a sprained ankle might heal enough in two weeks for a woman, who is used to pointe work, but I don't know if they will want to risk Hallberg (on pointe, natch) ahead of the Japan tour. Simkin clearly cannot partner Murphy...which, in the worst case, would leave Stearns for three shows in a row?? Hopefully they've got someone in reserve if Hallberg cannot perform..

you are correct in that assessment in regards to the Ballet Danseur role. When casting first went up for the spring season, all but two were complete cast listings...the incomplete two were for the Ballet Danseur role, which was listed as "TBD" Simkin ended up getting both of those open slots...that leads me to believe, another male was supposed to dance in the role, but it just didn't work out...but that means it was a shorter male dancers too if Daniil could fill-in. So, ABT may find itself in a bind if Hallberg if not completely healed...however, keep in mind however, Hallberg can get away without doing all the pointe-work since it is supposed to be a parody anyways...

you are correct in that assessment in regards to the Ballet Danseur role. When casting first went up for the spring season, all but two were complete cast listings...the incomplete two were for the Ballet Danseur role, which was listed as "TBD" Simkin ended up getting both of those open slots...that leads me to believe, another male was supposed to dance in the role...

Ah, yes...I think that must have been what I was thinking about because I knew there were (at least) four casts of women. Thank you for clearing it up.

Stearns now dances Hallberg's part on opening night (though Hallberg is still listed for the Saturday mat), and Blaine Hoven makes his debut in place of Stearns with the Friday night cast of Part/Abrera. Anyone hoping over in the principal thread that Hoven would get a break, got their wish.

I just thank whatever gods necessary that Part/Abrera didn't get their day swapped again after I finally bit the bullet and bought my tickets for their performance.

As someone attending these shows and not the Japan ones, glad would not be my adjective of choice! But I hope he recovers more fully with the extra week, and as I said previously I don't think pointe work has any place in the recovery of a sprained ankle, especially in a man who has not trained in pointe shoes all his life.

For me, Thursday’s performances belonged to the supporting cast. I haven’t seen Salstein in a "real" dancing role in a few years, and forgot how powerful and clean he is. I thought he captured the spirit of the Accordian player perfectly (he embraced the staccato nature of the steps), and Riccetto was the perfect horrified foil to his overwhelming machismo. If there are any other ballets that call for a Charleston I think we’ve found our girl in Riccetto. Similarly, Misty Copeland and Jared Matthews were at their best as the milkmaid and the tractor driver. While I was watching, I thought Copeland was softer than I’ve ever seen her, but after viewing Messmer in the same role without any part sticking out to me, I realized that Copeland retained her sharp attack in her footwork but has worked on softening the upper body to great effect. I hope she gets some more major opportunities soon. Roman Zhurbin was his usual wonderful and hilarious self as the inspector of quality.

For the main cast, I confess in general to being no great fan of either Murphy or Herrera; I haven’t even seen Herrera dance in anything for about three years, but I wanted to see her in a Ratmansky ballet since everyone has said she has blossomed with his choreography. To a degree, I agree: she is certainly more alive onstage than I’ve seen her before and she is clear with her storytelling and expression. I will, however, never be able to get past her upper body and arms; it feels like they stall the flow of choreography. Gomes was wonderful as her partner—he does bring out the best in her, but who doesn’t he do that for? Murphy was good as the Ballerina, but she completely blew her big circle of grand jetes that burst in on the highlanders. She missed the big musical crash of the second one and then subsequently missed the music on most of the rest—really disappointing since that is such a great section of dancing. As the Ballerina, she acted glamorous rather than being glamorous, a distinction Abrera would make clear to me the following night.

The biggest surprise of the main cast was Stearns, for me. I think this is his best role since Romeo. He had a lot of stage presence and was routinely very funny. This is the first time I’ve seen him really own a part rather than just getting through it. He didn’t try to hide his size or masculinity dressed up as the ballerina and it really worked. I hope he is okay because he took a few really nasty spills during the second act (one literal belly flop!). Luckily the character hid all of that, so people in the audience assumed, I think, it was planned. In a way it was sad: he fell for real and people laughed at him! He laughed at himself though too, so all went on well.

More on Friday coming!

PS...I know some people haven't liked the ABT version of the sets/costumes, but I am so relieved that Pyotr's outfit no longer looks like a 70s disco pimp! Sometimes less is more, and with ABT's costumes that is usually the philosophy to go by because the results are often tacky as hell when their costume department tries too many colors.

Friday night’s cast was a complete delight. I first saw the Bright Stream with the Bolshoi, and with Maria Alexandrova as the Ballerina—Alexandrova dances like a glittering diamond, and last night Stella Abrera brought that same quality to her dancing. I’ve never seen her look better—there wasn’t a foot out of place, her arms sang along in complete unison with Veronika Part’s, and her character was richly and warmly developed. Last night, she pushed the action of the ballet along as she coordinated each farce onstage to her liking (thankfully she didn’t have the same issues as Murphy with the circle of jetes…on the contrary, she looked like she didn't wanted to stop punching them out!). Attention Kevin: please promote this woman! What more does she have to do?

It is to her credit that Blaine Hoven’s debut was the success it was; his dancing was much more assured and polished than circumstances would dictate (corps dancer, less than a week’s notice to debut, and first lead in a full length ballet). He took his acting cues, smartly, from Abrera and they made a great and committed team. He got an enormous roar from the audience after his ballerina solo. The only iffy part of the evening was when he had to partner Part for about 10 seconds in the 2nd act…that almost spun right out of control, but it passed quickly.

Part had a slower start to the ballet (a few bobbles in the first act when she was dancing with Abrera), but was ravishing in the pas de deux with Hammoudi. There were no partnering issues between them, and Veronika danced with abandon. He even had her centered in supported pirouettes! Whoever is working with Hammoudi must have kicked it into overtime, and I think that as Hammoudi grows acting-wise, they will have a really wonderful partnership. She was lost in the moment dancing with Pyotr, and that made his betrayal even more heartbreaking; she would look out of this world happy to be dancing with her husband and to have his attention in this way, and then catch his eye and remember what she was doing, and immediately her shoulders would slump in defeat. Also, she really made Hammoudi beg for it at the end, whereas the moment was over so quickly between Gomes/Herrera I practically missed it occurring in the midst of the stage action.

Susan Jones was a riot…I’ve never seen anyone receive so much applause for bourreing halfway across a stage while fanning herself. She then gaped at the audience as if to say, “For me? How right you are!” Radestky and Lane were great as the Accordian player/schoolgirl. Radetsky was more lyrical than Salstein and Lane wasn’t quite as goofy as Riccetto, but was adorable nonetheless. I was happy to see Isaac Stappas once more before he leaves—it’s a good way say goodbye, riding a tractor of your coworkers offstage!

Friday night’s cast was a complete delight. I first saw the Bright Stream with the Bolshoi, and with Maria Alexandrova as the Ballerina—Alexandrova dances like a glittering diamond, and last night Stella Abrera brought that same quality to her dancing. I’ve never seen her look better—there wasn’t a foot out of place, her arms sang along in complete unison with Veronika Part’s, and her character was richly and warmly developed. Last night, she pushed the action of the ballet along as she coordinated each farce onstage to her liking (thankfully she didn’t have the same issues as Murphy with the circle of jetes…on the contrary, she looked like she didn't wanted to stop punching them out!). Attention Kevin: please promote this woman! What more does she have to do?

It is to her credit that Blaine Hoven’s debut was the success it was; his dancing was much more assured and polished than circumstances would dictate (corps dancer, less than a week’s notice to debut, and first lead in a full length ballet). He took his acting cues, smartly, from Abrera and they made a great and committed team. He got an enormous roar from the audience after his ballerina solo. The only iffy part of the evening was when he had to partner Part for about 10 seconds in the 2nd act…that almost spun right out of control, but it passed quickly.

Part had a slower start to the ballet (a few bobbles in the first act when she was dancing with Abrera), but was ravishing in the pas de deux with Hammoudi. There were no partnering issues between them, and Veronika danced with abandon. He even had her centered in supported pirouettes! Whoever is working with Hammoudi must have kicked it into overtime, and I think that as Hammoudi grows acting-wise, they will have a really wonderful partnership. She was lost in the moment dancing with Pyotr, and that made his betrayal even more heartbreaking; she would look out of this world happy to be dancing with her husband and to have his attention in this way, and then catch his eye and remember what she was doing, and immediately her shoulders would slump in defeat. Also, she really made Hammoudi beg for it at the end, whereas the moment was over so quickly between Gomes/Herrera I practically missed it occurring in the midst of the stage action.

Susan Jones was a riot…I’ve never seen anyone receive so much applause for bourreing halfway across a stage while fanning herself. She then gaped at the audience as if to say, “For me? How right you are!” Radestky and Lane were great as the Accordian player/schoolgirl. Radetsky was more lyrical than Salstein and Lane wasn’t quite as goofy as Riccetto, but was adorable nonetheless. I was happy to see Isaac Stappas once more before he leaves—it’s a good way say goodbye, riding a tractor of your coworkers offstage!

Thank you ksk04. We in NYC are having withdrawal symptoms, your reports are much appreciated.